A joint located between adjacent sheets of drywall or wall board consists of tape embedded within joint compound. The embedding process has many factors, which can influence the adhesive strength, measured by ASTM C474, between the joint compound and the tape. The influencing factors include knife angle, knife pressure, amount of compound on the knife before, during, and after embedding the tape, all of which have different amounts of influence.
The measurement of bond strength relies on the joint compound's ability to bond, the tape's ability to bond, and the embedding practice used. When a person is trying to identify the bonding ability of only the joint tape or only the joint compound by conducting a bond test (ASTM C474 or otherwise), it is impossible to determine how much of the result was influenced by the other two factors. By using a controlled tape embedding apparatus, the embedding practice used is consistent across all tests regardless of the operator or other personal factors. Therefore, the embedding practice influence is fixed and the ability of only the joint tape to bond or only the joint compound to bond can be determined.
Thus, there exists a need for an apparatus, system, and method, which controls these factors, or the mechanics, of embedding joint tape into joint compound to provide consistent and accurate results.
Further, while spreading wet building material such as joint compound spackle, etc., applicators feel the material and prefer a specific feel of the product. This feel is the result of how the material flows due to the application forces while being spread, typically by some type of application device (e.g. knife). There exists a need to measure forces on the application device during the spreading operation. Specifically, it is desired to measure one or more components of forces involved with spreading the building material (e.g. joint compound) at specific parameters.
Thus, there exists a need for an apparatus, system, and method for accessing or determining the forces on the application device to analyze and characterize the “feel” of the joint compound in a standardized and meaningful manner, which information can be used by the manufacturer of joint compound and users (e.g. applicators) purchasing and applying joint compounds.